Henry Reed (poet)
Henry Reed (22 February 1914 - 8 December 1986) was an English poet, translator, radio dramatist, and journalist. Life Reed was born in Birmingham and educated at King Edward VI School, Aston, followed by the University of Birmingham. At university he associated with W.H. Auden, Louis MacNeice and Walter Allen. He went on to study for an M.A., and then worked as a teacher and journalist. He was called up to the Army in 1941, spending most of the war as a Japanese translator. After the war he worked for the BBC as a radio broadcaster and playwright, where his most memorable set of productions was the Hilda Tablet] series in the 1950s. The series started with A Very Great Man Indeed, which purported to be a documentary about the research for a biography of a dead poet and novelist called Richard Shewin. This drew in part on Reed's own experience of researching a biography of novelist Thomas Hardy. However, the "twelve-tone composeress" Hilda Tablet, a friend of the late Richard Shewin, became the most interesting character in the play; and in the next play, she persuades the biographer to change the subject of the biography to her - telling him "not more than twelve volumes". Dame Hilda, as she later became, was based partly on Ethel Smyth and partly on Elisabeth Lutyens (who was not pleased, and considered legal action). Unfortunately for Reed he was forever being confused with the much better known Sir Herbert Read (the two men were unrelated). Henry Reed responded to this confusion by naming his 'alter ego' biographer in the Hilda Tablet plays "Herbert Reeve" and then by having everyone else get the name slightly wrong. Writing Reed's most famous poem is Lessons of the War, a witty parody of British army basic training during World War II, which suffered from a lack of equipment at that time. Originally published in New Statesman and Nation (August 1942), the series was later published in A Map of Verona in 1946 (his only collection to be published within his lifetime). Another often-anthologized poem is Chard Whitlow, a clever satire of T.S. Eliot's Burnt Norton. Eliot himself was amused by Chard Whitlow's mournful imitations of him ("As we get older we do not get any younger ..."). Recognition The Papers of Henry Reed are kept at the University of Birmingham Special Collections. Publications Poetry *''A Map of Verona: Poems''. London: Cape, 1946. *''Collected Poems'' (edited by Jon Stallworthy). Oxford, UK, & New York: Oxford University Press, 1991; Manchester UK: Carcanet, 2007. Plays *''Moby Dick: A play for radio from Melville's novel''. London: Cape, 1947. *''Hilda Tablet, and others: Four pieces for radio''. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1971. *''The Streets of Pompeii, and other plays for radio''. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1971. Non-fiction *''The Novel Since 1939''. London & New York: British Council / Longmans Green, 1946. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Henry Reed, WorlCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 24, 2015. See also *List of British poets References External links ;Poems * 'Naming of Parts' * 'Chard Whitlow' *The Poetry of Henry Reed *Henry Reed at PoemHunter (13 poems) ;Audio / video *Henry Reed at YouTube *The Private Life of Hilda Tablet ;About *"Masters of all they survey", review of Collected Poems in The Guardian *Reeding Lessons: The Henry Reed research blog Category:1914 births Category:1986 deaths Category:Aston Old Edwardians Category:English poets Category:People from Birmingham, West Midlands Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Humorous poets